Watch the First 8K YouTube Video Here!

It seems like only yesterday we were all “oohing” and “aahing” over 4K resolution on YouTube. It seemed glorious and new … and lasting. Like Laserdisc. But like Laserdisc, this technology would seem stale and blasé as soon as the next thing came along. And that next thing is 8K video.

Okay, this is a bit of a con artist act. You see, you can watch the first publicly available 8K video on YouTube here, but in order to watch it you need a fast computer and fast internet. If you don’t have those things, you can watch your computer buffer a bit and then decidedly drop you down into a lower class of resolution — mine dropped down to 360p (ouch!).

So that’s the rub.

Sure the video is still neat to behold in, say, 1080p, but obviously those who have the means to enjoy 8k — which is few of you — it will be even better. We liken it to having tickets to NASCAR: if you get in the stadium you’re gonna enjoy it, but if you have a front row seat, well, it’s pretty unbeatable.

Of course we’ll keep an eye on this technology as it becomes more prevalent — or if it explodes on the wall and flames out.